I Missed It

 

Yesterday was International Polar Bear Day.

What Goes Around

 

image from Wikipedia

Because I am a big fan of karma, as my modest contribution to Black History Month I would like to share a story I ran across earlier this week.

It seems that Marvin Griffin, the Governor of Georgia from 1955-59, was so segregationist that he demanded Georgia Tech not play in the 1956 Sugar Bowl - because the other team had an African-American wide receiver.  He further stipulated that no Georgia player or coach should ever, ever play a game against an integrated team, and also never agree to play in a stadium where black fans were allowed to attend.  In his words,

The South stands at Armageddon.  The battle is joined.  We cannot make the slightest concession to the enemy in this dark and lamentable hour of struggle.  There is no more difference in compromising integrity of race on the playing field than in doing so in the classrooms.  One break in the dike and the relentless enemy will rush in and destroy us.

Long story short, the Board of Regents and the president of Georgia Tech* told him to pound sand.  Georgia Tech went to the Sugar Bowl (and won, 7-0).

Fast forward two years to a terrible coal mining disaster in the town of Spring Hill, Nova Scotia.  75 miners died. Most of the 99 survivors were quickly dug out, but seven remained trapped 4,000 feet underground for another nine days.  One of the trapped miners, a man named Maurice Ruddick, emerged as the hero of the tragedy - he encouraged the others, kept their spirits up with his singing, and refused to let them despair.  The mother of one of the miners later declared "If it wasn't for Maurice, they'd all have been dead."   Spring Hill was the first incident of its kind to get world-wide, round-the-clock TV coverage.  It was a major media event. Maurice Ruddick was named Canada's Man of the Year.

This inspired Gov Griffin to pull off a PR coup, as he saw it, and he invited the rescued miners and their families to an all-inclusive, week-long vacation at the Jekyll Island luxury resort.

At which point someone broke it to Gov Griffin that Maurice Ruddick was black.

*Dr Van Leer, a former army engineer, and WWI and WWII vet, was already on thin ice because he had allowed the first women to enroll at Georgia Tech in 1952.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year! ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Grrrsday

 

Virtue Never Goes Unpunished, Part III

 

image from nbcnews.com

Remember six or seven years ago when the CDC wanted to pick our brains about radiation response?

Well, somewhere out on the Internet my name is evidently still floating around in connection with the stuff we gave them, because I got an email today from a tech startup that wants to know if I'm interested in working on their new WMD virtual-reality training proposal.

The answer is of course a resounding NO - but hey, it's nice to be wanted.  I've had a fuzzy warm little glow all afternoon.

Other Crafts - A Wren House from 1929

 

From Modern Mechanix, April 1929, a wren house made from a coconut.  Which leads to the question of course, was it an African or European wren? 

Vintage Holidays - President's Day

 

Copyright-free image from Dover.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

To have courage in a sudden crisis is comparatively easy.  There are obvious and positive things to do.  But to remain brave over a long period is a different matter.  To wait and to watch, for month after month, while inevitable tragedy stalks closer, that is the test. ~ Lindsey Davis

Stuck In The Middle With You

 

Per our EMA, I39 is closed south of Bloomington-Normal, I55 is closed north of Bloomington-Normal, and I74 is closed east of Bloomington-Normal.  If you're trying to get out of central Illinois this afternoon, you're out of luck. EDITED TO ADD: the pile-up on I39 involved 130 vehicles.

Grrrsday

 

Tatting - A Pincushin Motif from 1872 (With A Little Help From My Friends)

 

The above is from the Ladies' Own Paper, February 3rd, 1872. It has the usual instructions for magazines of that period, that is to say, minimal.  I posted it on a vintage FB tatting patterns group I belong to, and within three hours one of the members had it sussed out.  A hat tip to Kathleen J Minnitti, wherever she may be!

Vintage Holidays - Valentine's Day

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday

 

Quote Of The Day

 

Frederic W Burton, The Meeting On the Turret Stairs

You are a language I have learned by heart. ~ Dana Gioia

Grrrsday

 

The Abominable Snowdog.

Other Crafts - Skis from Barrel Staves

 

From Modern Mechanix, February 1929.  If anyone has a barrel and gives this a try, we want photos.

Vintage Advertising - Happy National Jello Week

 

From Woman's Home Companion, January 1921.  And the second week in February really is National Jello Week.

Caturday!

 

The longest journey in the world begins with one step.  So does the shortest.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

 ...and keep drifting all the roads closed. On the other hand, it has stopped snowing!

Quote of the Day

 

image from the Old Farmer's Almanac

Wild animals, like wild places, are invaluable to us precisely because they are not us.  They are uncompromisingly different.  The paths they follow, the impulses that guide them, are of other orders. ~ Robert Macfarlane.

Grrrsday

 

A Word From On High

 

From our county EMA's FB page:  Stay home!  The stores are out of everything anyway.

Art Imitates Life

 

We're Ready

 

Happy Year of the Tiger

 

In honor of the lunar New Year, here's a model to print out and fold into a tiger, from the Canon Creative Park.